By Asst. Prof. Dr. Apichart Sonthisombat
Award Gold Prize : Seoul International Invention Fair 2009 (SIIF 2009)
This project is to study an appropriate method for preparation of silk fibroin and silk sericin particles in order to grind huge particles into smaller pieces. Silk fibroin particles receiving from some experiments were investigated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). From the SEM’s pictures, it was found that that the silk fibroin particles and silk sericin particles produced in the project had particle sizes at minimum value about 800 and 1,400 nanometer respectively. Silk fibroin particles mixed with polyurethane binder and also Sericin particles mixed with polyurethane binder were sprayed evenly on single jersey 100% polyester fibers sportswear shirts after that the shirts were investigated their absorbency, vertical wicking test (before washing, after washing 10 and 20 times). The results showed that the shirts had better absorbency and wicking properties whereas the results from drying rate and moisture content were still nearly the same as the untreated shirts. A hand feel test, investigated by 100 volunteers, showed that the fabric handle was from excellent to fair handle as an untreated shirt had excellent handle, a treated shirt with silk sericin and binder had better handle and a treated shirt with silk fibroin and binder had only fair handle. An UV protection test (UPF Rating) of all fabrics showed excellent protections. Therefore, it can be concluded that the treated shirts with silk fibroin or silk sericin gave better comfort to the wearers and the wearers could feel these comforts themselves. The cost of producing such finishing will increase the price of the sportswear shirt just only 7-8%. This method is, therefore, suitable to produce the sportswear fabrics for high performance purposes.